Aaron Swartz’s Life Spurs Protest Against Internet Surveillance

Since Aaron Swartz’s death a lot of activists realize they’re facing huge battles, but everybody can be doing something to fight back in a way to address that, Parker Higgins from the Electronic Frontier Foundation told RT.

RT:‘The Day We Fight Back’ protest scheduled for Tuesday coincides with the anniversary of internet activist Aaron Swartz’s death. How has privacy legislation progressed following his suicide, allegedly prompted by severe charges for unlawfully downloading academic journals online?

Parker Higgins: Obviously, a year ago we knew much less about the NSA, GCHQ and other Intelligence Agencies. In the last six to seven months we’ve learned things from Edward Snowden’s leaks that of course were issues that Aaron was himself very interested in. The privacy legislation has advanced a lot because of that and so we’ve seen things that are directly related to Aaron with move forward on cyber-crime law in the US, for example, but then there are a lot of things that he couldn’t really foresee a year ago.

RT:Swartz’s suicide has made him a martyr in the eyes of many internet freedom activists. Do you feel authorities effectively drove him to take his own life, with an impending potential 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines?

PH: I think suicide is very complex and there is no way to point at any single issue. Even if you don’t go as far as they’re saying: that the authorities drove him to this, it was an unjust and unnecessary display of power and a way to hound somebody, and they actually hounded him to death – we can’t know. But I do know that when you talk to the people that were close to him, that seems to be something that they think.

RT:How has what Aaron Swartz achieved and stood for motivated others to continue his cause?

PH: Aaron gave a great speech a couple of years ago now, just after we had won the SOPA battle, tactically. So the reason we won this was that people were inspired to become heroes of their own story, it really takes activism to their own hands. I think that this message has really resonated not just since his death, but especially in a year since his death, I think we’ve seen a lot of activists realize that we’re facing very large battles, but everybody can be doing something, everybody can be fighting back in a way to address that.